Bitcoin has hit a new all-time high after surging in price by more than six per cent in the space of a few hours on Friday morning.
The world’s leading cryptocurrency reached above $118,000 (£87,000) for the first time in its history, having traded below $80,000 as recently as April.
The broader crypto market also experienced big gains, with ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and dogecoin (DOGE) all rising by more than seven per cent.
The new record puts bitcoin’s market cap above $2.3 trillion, ranking it above tech giants like Alphabet (Google) and Meta. While still only a fraction of gold’s estimated market cap of $22 trillion, it has now overtaken silver.
The record-breaking rally began in the wake of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement on 2 April, which disrupted traditional markets and saw investors and institutions turn to alternative assets like bitcoin as a hedge against macroeconomic turmoil.
“Bitcoin has shattered expectations, evolving from a subdued trading range into a full-blown surge that culminated in a new all-time high,” Gadi Chait, head of investment at Xapo Bank, told The Independent.
“Under the surface, institutional accumulation is at fever pitch. What’s more, is this stability and institutional inflow we’re seeing has held firm through a period of fairly significant macroeconomic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions rising globally; a test that many other so-called ‘volatile assets’ would struggle to pass.”
The latest price rise has fuelled bullish predictions from some crypto market analysts, with a recent survey of 22 experts by financial comparison site Finder revealing an average forecast of $145,167 by the end of 2025.
Hitting this price would require a further $27,000 increase in the second half of the year, having already increased by around $25,000 in the first half.
“There’s still at least six months left in this bull run,” said Kadan Stadelmann, the chief technology officer at blockchain firm Komodo Platform, who was involved in the survey.
“It’s easy to see it going significantly higher before the end of 2025. If we continue to follow history, I expect the peak around Q1 of 2026 and a bear market to follow.”
